5 most important forks of fall 2018

This year has been an eventful year for forks. We have seen excitement build over and over again as a barrage of forks came our way from every corner of the cryptocurrency community. Monero, in particular, saw no less than 5 forks in just a few past months. Here we will look forward to the fall season and what to look forward to in the coming months.

Anonymous Bitcoin (ANON)

Date: September 10, 2018

First on our list is a new Bitcoin fork focused on anonymity much like several other coins putting privacy as the foremost driving factor. ANON is a “co-fork” of Bitcoin (BTC) and ZClassic (ZCL) which will include changes such as staking through use of masternodes, increased block size and a transparent development process. Both holders of Bitcoin and ZClassic will be rewarded after the fork with the newly created ANON coin in 1:1 and 2:1 ratio respectively. It will run on the Equihash proof-of-work algorithm and utilize “Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Argument of Knowledge” aka “ZK-Snarks” privacy protocol. The snapshot was taken today, Sept 10.

While Bitcoin Gold is not forking, it is nonetheless important to note that BTG will be delisted from the Bittrex exchange on Sept. 14. If you are currently holding BTG through this platform you should take steps to protect yourself from losses by exchanging holdings to a different coin or moving to another exchange.

BitcoinZeroX (BZX)

Date: September 30, 2018

The next coin is yet another fork of two coins into one, also aimed primarily at anonymous transactions – BitcoinZeroX (BZX) is a brand new coin to be created on Sept. 30 by using Hexxcoin (HEXX) to “extend the functionality of bitcoin” by adding Zerocoin anonymity. BitcoinZeroX claims to be superior to Anonymous Bitcoin in terms of anonymity because it is based on the zerocoin privacy protocol and not the ZK-Snarks. This is debated in crypto circles but many believe the privacy offered by zerocoin is simply better. BitcoinZeroX will also have masternodes and will be a project of its own with its own whitepaper that will be released in the near future. BZX runs on the lyra2z330 mining algorithm and features a total coin supply of 9,999,999 with 8,411,138 pre-mined coins. Holders of Bitcoin and Hexxcoin will receive the newly created BitcoinZeroX in a ratio of 1:1 for both currencies.

Announced 2 months ago, on July 27th, Constantinople is the final phase of a series of upgrades taking place on the Ethereum network. The network is in the process of upgrading into its “metropolis” stage. Metropolis is the second to last in a series of planned upgrades to the Ethereum network (the final stage is called Serenity and is planned for the not too distant future). What the “Constantinople” hard fork upgrade finalized is a process of smoothly changing ETH’s proof-of-work algorithms with proof-of-stake implementation. Constantinople was designed to increase efficiency and lower transaction fees but may also result in a higher level of scalability on the Ethereum blockchain. It will also feature the ZK-Snarks security protocol and account abstraction, making DAPPS and Smart Contracts more accessible and user-friendly than ever before. While there is no new coin as a result of this fork, it is worth noting that the last time the Ethereum network upgraded (from Frontier to Homestead) the value of ETH saw an increase of over 100%! So you may want to start mining some ethereum right away while the price is in a massive dip.

Bitcoin Cash (BCH)

Date: November 15, 2018

Bitcoin Cash is learning from the experience of Forking and upgrading the network back in May and is bringing those lessons to a new upgrade planned for mid-November. The code for this fork was completed on August 15th and testing was supposed to have started on testnet. The deadline for the official release is October 15 and if there are no issues the hard fork will take place as planned on November 15.

There you have it. Lots of exciting developments are coming our way. Privacy is the new push among the entire cryptocurrency community and so we will continue to see these new anonymous transaction coins testing the water and improving security every step of the way. The forks coming up are really very promising and seem to be, at first glance, some of the most legitimate forks we have seen in recent months. There is far less controversy over these for one and transparency is becoming ever more important among developers. We may very well be entering a new golden age for cryptocurrencies, or at the very least we are well on our way.